


A Golden Castle in a Moonlight Frost

by Moonrose91



Series: Three Hundred Years of Being Forgotten (Mostly) [9]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen, Has more fluff, Healing, Still Angsty, Well....should anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-10
Updated: 2012-12-10
Packaged: 2017-11-20 20:32:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/589366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonrose91/pseuds/Moonrose91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a castle, hidden among the ice and snow, built of golden sand. It was not there before and, when the purpose of the castle is through, it will not be there after. It has but one purpose; to be a safe haven of healing.</p><p>And until that healing is done, the castle shall stay standing, hidden in the ice and snow. And, no matter how hard one would look, unless the exact location was known, it would never be found.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Golden Castle in a Moonlight Frost

Sandy glanced into the room that is Jack's, built into the snow and ice itself instead of just being of golden sand, and smiles in relief to see Jack sleeping peacefully in the bed, before he frowns down at the destroyed cloak, cape, thing.

It is in tatters and not even North's elves would be able to fix it. He carefully ran his fingers over the tatters and looked up, even as Jack slept peacefully on.

It was rare now that he slept calmly because, even if Sandy fought against Pitch Black, nightmares were needed.

To help heal when something happened, something that shouldn't have, and Sandy took a deep breath before he lost his temper again.

He could not attack Mother Nature for it, he would not place more guilt on her shoulders, and he could not rip into Pitch because there was no proof he was the one to attack Spring, and he could not scream to his heart's content until his rage was burned out because he could not, physically, scream.

And he already destroyed the one thing he would allow himself to destroy, so that was out as well.

He took another deep breath and slowly released it. He shook himself all over and focused back on the cloak.

He would have to get another one or something new entirely.

Sandy hesitated to leave, but he wouldn't make one out of dream sand and Sandy didn't have the materials to make anything to replace it.

With a sigh, Sandy left a note for Jack and took off for North's workshop.

* * *

Jack woke with a start, breathing heavily and he carefully raised a shaky hand to his head, shoving his fingers into his hair. He curled up on the bed, curling his hands over his ears as if that would erase the cries of his nightmares. He buried himself further into the frozen covers and the North Wind swirled around him patiently, ruffling his shirt and hair.

Jack shook his head slightly, but the North Wind was insistent and slowly Jack sat up, even if he didn’t want to. He just wanted to curl up and not move and forget about the world. He wanted to hide away and keep away from everyone, but without his staff, and too drained to try without it, he couldn’t. He sighed and got up, wincing at the way the bed felt.

“I miss sleeping in the snow,” he muttered and the North Wind sung soothingly in his ear and Jack leaned into the ruffling the Wind always gave him.

It was then that he registered that Sandman was missing. He looked around in confusion until his eyes landed on a paper. He walked over to it and sighed when he saw it covered in squiggles.

Stupid squiggles.

Jack sighed and sat back down on the bed, glaring at the note. Some frost was curling over it and Jack huffed softly, asking his powers not to damage the paper.

The frost hesitated, but obeyed.

Jack gave his thanks and he felt the room drop in temperature as his abilities, the Winter he was created to carry and contain, worked itself out in other ways. He sighed and tried to figure out what it said. He didn’t think it was a note that said Sandman was abandoning him; Jack was pretty sure the castle would be gone if that was so, but Jack had no idea where he was.

And he stared at the squiggles, trying to will them into making sense, but they didn’t.

He was about to toss it away when a golden tendril curled in front of his face and he looked up. “Sandman!” he greeted with a smile, hopping up onto his feet, even if it made him sway a little.

He noticed that all the golden sand got a little brighter and Sandman floated over, carefully ruffling Jack’s hair before he had Jack sit down. It was only then that Jack realized that there was something floating behind Sandman. He twitched and looked around the shorter man, curious, and Sandman sighed before depositing it gently on Jack’s lap.

“It’s not my birthday,” he answered when he saw the wrapped present.

Sandman shot him a look, but Jack still stared at him in confusion. “But…I haven’t done anything to…I…” Jack stated, but Sandman merely rested his hands on Jack’s shoulders and almost seemed to be trying to explain something to Jack.

Jack hesitated and then looked down at the present. He looked back up and Sandman encouraged him to open it.

And with that, Jack did.

He immediately stood up as he pulled out the coat, navy blue, and put it on in surprise. The collar could flip up to hide his face, and the cuffs could fold down to cover his hands. It fell just past his knees and there was a cape attached that fell just past his elbows. He immediately closed it up, and, even though he sort-of looked like he was wearing a dress, he loved it.

With the way he was feeling, he felt like he could huddle into it and hide. He ran a hand lovingly over it and he smiled up at Sandman, who looked cheerful over the fact Jack loved it so much.

Jack then glanced at the letter Sandman had left him and held it out to Sandman. “Could you teach me how to read?” he asked, and, from the look on Sandman’s face, Jack would guess that he was surprised, but the man of golden dreams nodded anyway and Jack looked relieved.

* * *

Jack poured himself into the lessons, turning them into a game and, essentially, making the North Wind learn as well. As time passed, only Sandy saw the way the castle was slowly growing smaller and smaller as Jack’s need for it diminished. Slowly, Jack stopped hiding within his greatcoat and began to play more often, living without his need for the staff, because Sandy still could see the darkness that was haunting Jack’s eyes and it would just take one bad day to have him icing himself in, probably.

But Sandy smiled as Jack devoured the lessons that he was taught, even though Sandy was sure they would have been easier with someone could speak, but…

Who else was there?

Sandy knew that the other Guardians barely knew of Jack.

To them, Jack was just ‘that Winter Spirit.’

Did they even know that the Man in the Moon, not Mother Nature, had created him?

Oh, she probably had a hand, now that Sandman thought about it, to be a Seasonal Spirit, but she had not reached out to the child, when that was something he needed.

Of course, Sandy could understand, considering her…past.

The day Jack was able to read a page from a book Sandy had found without any help, was the day the castle finished dissolving, the glimmering sand flying into the wind, leaving only Jack’s room, a place of safety to go when it was needed.

“What happened?” Jack asked.

Yes, his icy blue eyes were still a little shadowed, but he would be fine.

So Sandy wrote out the purpose of the castle and Jack stared at Sandy. “You built this…just for me?”

Sandy nodded.

“So…so I could be safe?”

Sandy nodded again and then waved his hand around and shrugged.

“It…it only stayed as long as I needed it,” he stated and glanced at the room that remained.

“So I can be safe,” he whispered and Sandy nodded again.

Jack stared down at the book in his hands and looked up at Sandy with a grin. “I can _read_! I can…I can see what people are talking about, and I can slip around and read over people’s shoulders! I…I’ll know things! I can finally read the crates in that workshop up in that snowbound place! Well, if I can get back into there again. I don’t think I can, but I can read the letters on the stable doors there too!” Jack exclaimed, getting excited and the North Wind curled around him eagerly, the book’s pages fluttering lightly in the breeze.

Sandy started and gave an unheard sigh, though Jack noticed.

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked.

Sandy made a cloud and motioned for Jack to sit down next to him.

It was time to explain the Guardians.

He’d explain the other spirits at another time.

He wasn’t sure how much Jack could take being known he was being considered below notice with just about every other being like him in the world.

Sandy was surprised he managed not to physically flinch when that thought crossed his mind.

He really hoped the castle wouldn’t reform.

And with that, as children dreamed peacefully, Sandy explained something to Jack he should have probably explained from the beginning.

Sandy never said how all the spirits got presents from North, no matter the list, because they couldn’t help their natures, for it held far more sway over them than any human. He never said how Bunny would probably despise Jack forever for what Mother Nature had asked him to do, or tell him how Tooth giggled over his teeth and would swoop down on him for that reason alone.

That would be the only reason Tooth would look at him, actually.

Sandy didn’t sigh over that, and kept these thoughts from his mind till later, when Jack had learned the names of the Guardians and after the meeting with Mother Nature.

Sandy huffed.

He was sure _that_ was going to go over well.

**Author's Note:**

> This one made me so nervous. I don't know why.


End file.
